Great PR ideas often come from making connections

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

As this blog post attests, Steve Jobs has come up with some great quotes in his time. This one particularly stands out for me:

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.” Read the rest of this entry »

Bullet PR speaks on ‘Social Media for Professional Networking’ at Social Media Club

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

We were part of an interesting Social Media Club on Tuesday night. The topic was ‘Social Media for Social Networking’, an important topic for us all.

Our speakers were:

Linda Coles, trainer and speaker on building and maintaining relationships online (www.bluebanana.co.nz; @bluebanana20)

Jane Kennelly, Company Director of frog recruitment, industry veteran and innovator (www.frogrecruitment.co.nz; @frogrecruitment)

And me, Alex Erasmus of Bullet PR (www.bulletpr.co.nz; @AlexErasmus)

Linda mainly discussed LinkedIn and we can all use it for establishing and strengthening business relationships. I think her talk reminded everyone of the points of difference that LinkedIn has over the likes of Facebook. The most pertinent point for me was that it only takes a few minutes a day to keep your online profile looking good. In many ways, it’s simply a ‘hygiene factor’ for when you’re looking for work, but it’s a good habit to get into.

Jane Kennelly of frog recruitment showed she is one of the few in her sector who is embracing social media. There is certainly a sea change in recruitment, where employers are now often looking at LinkedIn profiles and not CV’s. This is especially true for those working in media, but will surely be true of many more jobs in future. This is, like a lot of social media related subjects, heavily tied in to faster broadband, free wi-fi zones and smart phone adoption. Jane gave the example of MOTAT, who produced a great recruitment video, which beats traditional methods.

I finished the evening with a quick run-through my take on online networking. My opinion is that you should start by being interested in what others are saying and listen to their responses. It also pays to have a clear understanding of what you are looking for from the relationship. Networking for networking’s sake doesn’t do any of us any favours. Moreover, are you actually adding value online? Rather than trying to connect with as many people as you can, why not try and do something different from others in your field so that people want to connect with you? This is a much better way of approaching it. Read the rest of this entry »

When not to communicate by email - lessons in reputation management

Posted by: Paul Matthews

Here in New Zealand, an unfortunate public squabble has erupted in the last week between the surviving children of the late Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Mount Everest and national hero, and the Auckland Museum, to which Hillary bequeathed his documents.  I won’t delve into the complex details of the dispute  - there seems to be more to this issue than currently meets the eye.

Both sides have certainly made strong cases to the media over the last few days. Today, however, according to this story in the New Zealand Herald, a poorly worded communique from the Museum suggests that that institution may have given up on the communications task at hand and, dare I say it, abrogated its responsibility.

The Museum is a major public and cultural asset belonging to the city. So, it is poor form at the very least, Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook groups - Why some flourish and others fail

Posted by: Mike Shaw

Facebook groups cover seemingly everything, from people’s pet hates to their political views. However, the relative success or failure of such groups varies greatly. Why do some groups fail to take off, while others go viral and spread across the planet accumulating millions along the way?

Here are my observations on Facebook groups and some tips for success:

The four key groups:

Read the rest of this entry »

How NOT to manage a crisis: ‘when all else fails, try bribing search engines!’

Posted by: Paul Matthews

There are many recommendations Bullet PR would make regarding online reputation management, especially during a time of crisis. These would not include however, a recommendation to bribe search engines to exclude negative content! Read the rest of this entry »